News & forum sites have added nothing to my life

RetroRomper · Post by **RetroRomper** » Tue Mar 04, 2014 6:41 am

So I'm going to stop visiting them, the progress of which I'll chronicle here.

Goodbye -

reddit.com
news.google.com
somethingawful.com
techreport.com
arstechnica.com

AArdvark · Post by **AArdvark** » Tue Mar 04, 2014 5:22 pm

It's kind of addicting, reading news sites. I bet it's harder to stop than you think. It's too bad that they rarely relate good news.

THE
POPE SWORE AT ME
AARDVARK

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Tue Mar 04, 2014 8:11 pm

I don't know if it is habit, OCD, addition, or some combination, but I completely understand. When I was a kid I had accounts on 40 or 50 BBSes and I would sit at my desk all night long, calling one after another. When I was an admin over at Digital Press, I would sit on the forums hitting F5 waiting for new posts and responses to read.

I have a "pattern" (for lack of a better word) that I work through sometimes... I hit three or four forums, Google News, my RSS feeds, Facebook, Twitter... and then start all over again. When I don't have anything else to do I will run through that pattern over and over for hours. Sometimes I do that when I do have other things to do.

Best of luck with your reduction. Some days I feel like the more time spent away from the keyboard, the better off I am. Today is one of those days.

AArdvark · Post by **AArdvark** » Wed Mar 05, 2014 3:57 am

I read someplace that it's a similar addiction to gambling. You pull the slot machine handle (or hit refresh) and sometimes you win money (or new posts). So the hope for gratification factor is always there.

THE
ONE ARMED POSTER
AARDVARK

RetroR · Post by **RetroR** » Thu Mar 06, 2014 4:04 am

That is essentially what was bothering me about it, because I really wasn't learning (much less retaining) anything, but was instead just waiting for the next story to hit.

A year or so ago, I removed all Forum and News sites from my life and felt better: less stressed, a bit relieved and generally just less rushed.

Anyway... I managed to go a full day without Reddit, Google News, etc. (though I did accidentally navigate to them once or twice: muscle memory when presented with a blank browser tab).

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Sun Apr 20, 2014 11:09 pm

Shit, I think he removed this site, too!

I love forums, but I never thought I'd say this: I think either Reddit is killing forums or everyone is just getting sick of talking to each other.

(Or so many people have been assholes for so long that my sites are dying a sort of poster bed death.)

I will admit one thing: I honestly thought that a laid-back place like this would be more popular, and I absolutely thought a place where it's impossible to get banned (Caltrops) would be more appealing. The single fact that surprises me the most about humanity is that they fucking crave oppressive moderation.

I just do not get it.

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Mon Apr 21, 2014 8:32 pm

It's not just yours, ICJ. Every forum I'm on is slowly dying. And by slowly I mean rapidly.

I wrote an article many years ago (I still have it somewhere) back when BBSes were dying. It was very hateful and the gist of it was, "when you assholes get tired of the internet, us BBS people will still be here!" Unfortunately people never got tired of the internet...

I kind of feel the same today. I feel like, hey, when you assholes get tired of your little social media sites, we forum mongers will still be here! I'm not sure there's any pride in being a dinosaur but I like to pretend like there is.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Mon Apr 21, 2014 9:29 pm

Well, speaking of Twitter, the pointlessness of social media reared its head yesterday.

I have 2,200 followers for @Cyberganked. (I followback the same.) Twitter told me that my last tweet got.... ready for this...... 77 views.

77!

That is, what, 0.035% readership? Nobody is reading anyone else's social media!

I am honestly curious as to what some of you guys are getting, for views. But yes. When people tire of that, us forum people will be here.

I think.

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Tue Apr 22, 2014 9:21 pm

I didn't even know you could see that statistic. How do you see that?

I read the other day that 44% of Twitter users never write a single tweet. Doesn't that number seem really high?

RetroRomper · Post by **RetroRomper** » Sat May 24, 2014 9:23 am

Lets try this again...

Off limits:

reddit.com
news.google.com
somethingawful.com
techreport.com
arstechnica.com

I'm also discontented with my reading habits and will try clearing my evening schedule so I have a solid 2 - 4 hours of reading time per night.

Garth's Equipment Shop · Wed May 28, 2014 7:09 am

Good stuff. I stopped posting on all forums except this one some years back. It was indeed a horrible addiction. I wasted so much of my best years competing with others to see who could compose the best written, best researched and best formatted debate posts. Churning out stuff that other people actually got paid good money to do! And here I was doing it for nothing and giving away all my free time as well. I wouldn't be suprised if somebody out there was simply waiting for each new super post so they could copy and paste it into MS Office or OOWriter and save themselves loads of work when they needed something to publish and get paid well for it.